Ruy Blas (Mendelssohn)

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The overture Ruy Blas ( MWV M 11 ) to the play of the same name by Victor Hugo (1838) is a musical work by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy .

Emergence

The overture was written in 1839 at the request of the Leipzig theater together with a romance (op. 77 No. 3, a duet for two female voices) as incidental music for the piece. Mendelssohn reports on the development in a letter to his mother:

“You want to know how things went with the overture to Ruy Blas? Funny enough. Six to eight weeks ago I was asked to compose an overture and the romance in the play for the presentation of the theater pension fund (a very good and charitable institution here, which wanted to give the Ruy Blas for its benefit), because one can promised a better intake if my name was on the title. I read the piece, which is so utterly abhorrent and undignified as one can hardly believe it, and said that I had no time for an overture and composed the romance for you. - Monday (eight days ago today) should be the performance; on the previous Tuesday people came, thanking them very much for the romance and saying that it was so bad that I had not written an overture; but they could see very well that such a work would take time, and in the next year, if they were allowed to, they would tell me longer in advance. That bothered me; - I thought over the matter in the evening, started my score - Wednesday was a concert rehearsal the whole morning, - Thursday concert, but the overture was still with the copyist on Friday morning, was first rehearsed in the concert hall three times on Monday - then once in the theater, closed in the evening played the infamous piece and I had as much fun as not soon one of my things. In the next concert we will repeat them upon request; I don't call it the overture to Ruy Blas, but to the theater pension fund "

The overture was composed in just three days, since Mendelssohn's ambition as a composer was spurred on. The world premiere took place on March 11, 1839 at the Leipzig premiere of Victor Hugo's play. As an independent concert piece, it was performed for the first time 10 days later in the Leipzig Gewandhaus under the direction of the composer.

Success and importance

Mendelssohn himself valued his composition very much; nevertheless it did not appear in print during his lifetime - probably because of his aversion to the literary source; It was only posthumously given opus number 95. Eduard Hanslick attested the work “brilliant chivalry”, and according to a report by Richard Wagner , Robert Schumann is said to have expressed astonishment about the “brisk orchestral piece”. Although the overture was extremely popular and successful in Mendelssohn's time, it is now overshadowed by other works, such as the overtures A Midsummer Night's Dream or The Hebrides .

occupation

2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 4 horns , 2 trumpets , 3 trombones , timpani , 2 violins , viola , cello and double bass

The performance lasts approx. 8 minutes.

Structure and musical explanations

The introductory, recurring Lento section consists of six wind instruments - chords , the Allegro-molto- parts first introduce the main and secondary theme (in C minor and E flat major) in order to then process them. The overture can therefore be understood as a sonata movement that is repeatedly interrupted by Lento parts. Instead of a full recapitulation , the final a tempo part leads the secondary theme in C major virtuoso to the return of the main theme, which leads to a broad final coda .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter of March 18, 1839 from Leipzig, in: Letters from the years 1830 to 1847 , Volume 2. 6th edition. Leipzig 1875, p. 189 f. Quoted from: Wilhelm Adolf Lampadius: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. A total picture of his life and work. Leuckart, Leipzig 1886, p. 249 f., Zeno.org
  2. ^ Hans Christoph Worbs: Mendelssohn Bartholdy. rowohlt picture monograph 50215. 12th edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1998, ISBN 3-499-50215-1 , p. 102 f.